10 Best and Biggest Bitcoin Mining Pools

What is a Mining Pool?

Mining pools are groups of cooperating miners who agree to share block rewards in proportion to their contributed mining hash power.

While mining pools are desirable to the average miner as they smooth out rewards and make them more predictable, they unfortunately concentrate power to the mining pool’s owner.

Miners can, however, choose to redirect their hashing power to a different mining pool at anytime.

Pool Concentration in China

Before we get into the best mining pools to join, it’s important to note that most mining pools are in China. Many only have Chinese websites and support. Mining centralization in China is one of Bitcoin’s biggest issues at the moment.

There are about 20 major mining pools. Broken down by the percent of hash power controlled by a pool, and the location of that pool’s company, we estimate that Chinese pools control ~81% of the network hash rate:

China – 81%

Iceland – 5%

Japan – 3%

Czech Republic – 3%

Georgia – 2%

India – 2%

The Biggest Mining Pools

The list below details the biggest Bitcoin mining pools. This is based on info from Blockchain’s pool share chart:

We strongly recommend new miners to join Slush Pool despite it not being one of the biggest pools. It was the first Bitcoin mining pool and remains one of the most reliable and trusted pools, especially for beginners.

1. Antpool

Antpool is a mining pool based in China and owned by BitMain. Antpool mines about 25% of all blocks.

2. BTC.top

BTC.top is a private pool and cannot be joined.

3. BTC.com

BTC.com is a public mining pool that can be joined. However, we strongly recommend joining Slush Pool instead.

4. Bixin

Bixin is another mining pool that is based in China. It is a public pool, but unless you speak Chinese we do not recommend joining this pool.

5. BTCC

BTCC is a pool and also China’s third largest Bitcoin exchange. Its mining pool currently mines about 7% of all blocks.

9. Bitclub.Network

Slush was the first mining pool and currently mines about 3% of all blocks.

Slush is probably one of the best and most popular mining pools despite not being one of the largest.

Bitcoin Mining Pool Comparison

Pool

Location

Fees

Private Pool

BitFury

Georgia

0%

Yes

BTCC

China

2-3%

No

Slush Pool

Czech Republic

2%

No

Antpool

China

1%

No

BW

China

1%

No

The comparison chart above is just a quick reference. The location of a pool does not matter all that much. Most of the pools have servers in every country so even if the mining pool is based in China, you could connect to a server in the US, for example.

Hardware is important because it determines the size of your contribution to the pool’s hash rate. Software is important because it enables you to direct your hardware’s hash power towards the pool you prefer. So make sure to make the right choice in order to optimize your rewards.

What are Antpool’s Fees?

Antpool claims that it does not charge any fees for using its pool. Although there is some truth to this claim, it is not 100% correct.

While Antpool does not directly charge fees, it also does not disclose the Bitcoin transaction fees that are collected. Basically, clients are left in the dark. Currently, every Bitcoin block has a 12.5 BTC reward which Antpool does share with you when it finds a block.

Lately, however, Bitcoin transaction fees have been rising and an additional 1-2 bitcoins are collected per block by pools. At this time, Antpool keeps 1-2 bitcoins form transaction fees for itself, which are not shared with miners who have hash power pointed toward the pool.

It can be argued that these rates prevent the service from being usable for small-time and big-volume users. Consequently, some users on bitcointalk.orgheed that the undisclosed fees make the service unwise to use for the time being.

What is the Payout Threshold?

The pool does not appear to have a payout threshold and pays out every day around 10 AM UTC.

Can you do Solo Mining on Antpool?

Solo mining means you mine for bitcoins without joining a pool. So if you use Antpool you are not solo mining by default.

Generally, you will receive more frequent payouts by joining a pool.

What is the Controversy around Antpool?

Antpool has refused to enable arguably beneficial upgrades to Bitcoin for reasons based on claims that have been largely disproved. Notably, this has taken place with somewhat of a vindictive attitude.

More specifically, the controversy revolves around Segwit – a feature that requires miner activation to be enabled. Despite the fact that most Bitcoin users want this feature activated, Antpool, among other pools, appears to be blocking this feature.

Antpool began signalling for Bitcoin Unlimited in early March 2017 for reasons that have not been elucidated by Bitmain CEO (and cofounder Jihan Wu).

Antpool claims that it will only signal for Segwit if there is a hardfork, which is a proposition that most users oppose. Furthermore, allegations that the owner refuses to sell hardware to Segwit supporters have also begun to circulate.

By using Antpool, you allow the pool to decide your hardware’s approach to these matters, meaning that the pool that you used dictates the type of Bitcoin protocol that your hardware employs. If you wish to decide which implementation your hardware should signal for, you can use a pool that leaves the choice to its users, like the Slush mining pool.

Bitfury Information

According to BlockTrail, Bitfury is the third largest Bitcoin mining pool and mines about 11% of all blocks.

The main difference between the Bitfury pool and other mining pools is that Bitfury is a private pool.

Bitfury, the company, makes its own mining hardware and runs its own pool. So, unlike Slush or Antpool, Bitfury cannot be joined if you run mining hardware at home.

Bitfury 16nm ASIC Chip

Although Bitfury controls a large portion of the Bitcoin network hash rate, its committed to making Bitcoin decentralized :

BitFury is fundamentally committed to being a responsible player in the Bitcoin community and we want to work with all integrated partners and resellers to make our unique technology widely available ensuring that the network remains decentralized and we move into the exhash era together.

Valery Vavilov, CEO of BitFury

BTCC Mining Pool Review

BTCC Mining Pool is run by BTCC, a Bitcoin company based in China. The company also runs a Bitcoin exchange, wallet, prints physical bitcoins and more!

Worldwide Servers

BTCC runs servers all over the world so your mining hardware can connect easily to the BTCC pool.

So even though BTCC is based in China, don’t be worried that you can’t use or join the pool:

Our mining pool currently has customers from the United States, South America, Europe, China, and Africa.

Bobby Lee, BTCC CEO

Shared Transaction Fees

One great thing about BTCC pool is that it shares Bitcoin transaction fees with its miners.

In every Bitcoin block, around 1-2 BTC worth of transaction fees are also rewarded to the pool.

Some pools keep these fees for themselves and DO NOT share with their miners! BTCC evenly splits the transaction fees among its miners, just like it splits the 12.5 BTC reward.

Slush Pool Review

Slush Pool is run by Satoshi Labs and was the world’s first ever Bitcoin mining pool. It’s advanced yet also a great pool for beginners.